I ordered 10 Qts of Heavy Cream from our Amish Farmer. His cream is so thick a wooden spoon can stand in it. Not only is it thick, but it’s sweet and creamy delicious. I use a generous amount in my Chai Tea every morning. There are just some things I’m not willing to go without and one of them is fresh cream straight from the cow. Each qt of cream makes over 1 lb of butter and you also get the buttermilk. I freeze my butter and buttermilk in pint jars. The buttermilk is not your typical cultured buttermilk. In fact it’s quite ugly in color, somewhat of a brownish color but it’s packed with nutrients and will make great buttermilk pancakes.
Since we aren’t getting milk from our own cow yet, I’m currently the only one eating fresh creamy butter. The rest of the family eats organic butter from the grocery. Once we are getting our own milk, EVERYONE will eat our own fresh creamy butter. It’s just so expensive and since I use it for health purposes, I’m the only one eating it right now. 10 Qts (or 10 lbs) will last the winter until Spring grass is growing and Spring cream will be available. The Fall grass is still pretty green here and abundant so fall cream will also provide a good yellow butter which is indicative of a cow feeding on green grass.
Fresh creamy butter from grass fed cows is an excellent source of Vit A & D, and lecithin. It’s rich in anti-oxidants, it has a special category of fatty acids called glycospingolipids, and it holds what Dr Weston A Price called the X-Factor, which is believed now to be Vit K2. (1) For me personally, I believe that it’s the X-Factor that I needed to begin recovering my body from Chronic Lyme Disease. And that’s the the biggest reason I’m not willing to go without fresh cream or butter.
I use my Bosch Kitchen Machine with the cookie paddles to beat my butter. It takes less than 10 minutes to whip it to the point when the buttermilk begins to separate. Once that stage occurs I whip it a bit more for good measure. Then I take handfuls about the size of tennis balls and begin to rinse it under very cold running water. As I rinse I knead it in my hands….a real mess for sure, but it’s necessary to get it rinsed well so it doesn’t sour. Then I add salt to taste.
The little bowl of butter is a butter keeper that I bought from a local potter. The little bowl that’s not very visible to the left is filled 1/2 way with cold water. The saucer with butter in it is built on a plate. You flip it upside down and do the grade school experiment that pushes the water aside and keeps it dry while the water keeps it from souring……at least that’s the theory. In my opinion, it was a pure waste of money, since the cup is only about 1/4 cup and who doesn’t eat a 1/4 cup of butter before it sours!! Oh well….I looked in the mirror and saw SUCKER written across my face!
I also made a batch of Vanilla Ice Cream that everyone loves. Making Ice Cream is the easiest thing since sliced bread. I whisk together 1 Qt Fresh Cream, 1 Qt Fresh Milk, 2 raw eggs, 1 C raw honey, 1 tsp homemade vanilla and that’s it. I first whisk half together (minus the vanilla) and place it in the freezer for 1/2-1 hour to pre-chill, then I pour that in the ice cream bucket and whisk in the remaining cream and milk and vanilla. Once it’s mixed well (and if it’s not mixed well, you will get little pieces of what people think are butter….same idea….if you churn the ice cream and the cream isn’t mixed well….cream turns to butter!), so make sure it’s mixed well and then freeze in your ice cream freezer. I set mine on the deck pop the ice in a pour a little rock salt in. Leave for 20-30 min’s depending on the weather and that’s it. I pour the ice cream into a separate container because trying to scoop frozen ice cream from the metal tub is quite difficult, not to mention it freezers your hands off. I usually get 1/2 gal plus a qt. from a batch. It doesn’t last long, but it’s so delicious and worth the little bit of time that goes into it.
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Wow I’m so jealous! We need more Amish farmers around Seattle, that is for sure. Auburn, are you salting your butter? I’ve never made it before and have always wanted to. Cream is just so spendy here and raw milk is pretty spendy too. Since neither of us are working in the house I try to keep the food expenses down and have two little guys who need all the cream calories in the house already. Boy this sounds cool though!!!
Hi Auburn. I know that our cream is very thick. I don’t know why. I’ve gotten cream from a couple different Amish farmers and it’s all that way even though they have different cows with different cream %.
My plan is to use an ice tea jar with a spigot. Allow the cream to rise in the frig for 1-2 days and then to drain the milk from the bottom of the jar. Stopping when I reach the cream line. Cream separators are very expensive. My sister has an Amish farmer that showed them how to skim the cream off the top using a shallow bowl. I really don’t know, but it’s a good question to ask. They don’t add anything to it, I’m sure. I’m very anxious to see how my own cows do. Many that I’ve known complain because the cow withholds the cream until the end of milking and if the cow isn’t letting down and giving it all then there will be less cream. You might talk to the farmer you have and see if the cow is letting down. There are a lot of factors. I’ll just be glad to get my own milk one of these days!!!
“Sour,” that’s what I meant the other day when I was telling you about my homemade butter smelling “rancid.” And now I can see why my butter smells sour/rancid just a day after I make it, even though it’s kept in the fridge. Because I probably don’t rinse off it as much as I should. You say you knead it in your hands, under cold running water. I tried to do that, the first time, but even though the water was very cold, my hands seemed to be too warm still for the butter because it kind of softened as I tried to knead it. So the next two times I made butter, I just tried kneading with a spoon, pressing the butter against the side of the bowl.
Diane, this wonderful cream you get from the Amish, why is it so dense? Do they do something to it? As I was telling you the other day, I get raw milk from a small local farm. They have one cow. From the gallon and half I buy from them every week, I get about 30 oz of cream, which is very rich but not nearly as dense as the one you ordered.